How To Make a Billy Bookcase Look Expensive

ikea book case hack

Materials: BILLY Bookcases

I started by looking up “billy Ikea hack” on Google images, I went through tons of photos and blog posts showing the different changes one could make. (Kate’s hack on her blog Centsational Girl was my fave) I measured my space and consulted the good old website and finally settled on two full-size Billy bookcases and one narrow, all with the height extension added.

Now for the fun part the “hacking”! After my extensive research online I got down to the basic elements that you want cover to create the “built-in” look: crown molding, base molding & hide the seams with wood.

My final shopping trip was to Prince Lumber which is coincidentally 5 blocks from our apartment #amazing! I created a chart with all of the measurements of the bookcase to show the sales people so they could help me determine how much of each piece I needed.

Once I got back home step one of this job was to fully assemble the Billy’s just like the were at the store.

Now it was go time, I centered the crown molding and put the first finish nail in. This is really where that tool showed off, honestly it was so easy once I got started. With the crown molding up i did the same thing for the base molding. Next it was time to hide the seams between the bookcases with thin wood called “latices”
After a quick coat of paint and primer (matched from a small shelf) i was ready to style the bookcase!

I created a video about how I did this hack:

Link to video.